My friends page looked so empty without ONTD, it seriously freaked me out. I never realised how much I relied on those guys, I would have nothing relevent to talk to anybody about otherwise. Who wants to hear me talk about A-Level physics? Whereas everybody is interested in the Lady GaGa/Paris Hilton saga, even if the people I'm talking about it to hate them.

In other news, you may or may not know, I'm been pretty ill for about a month now, with complaints such as recurring tonsilitis. Antibiotics couldn't clear it entirely (and in fact aggravated the condition of my overall health). My mother sees a homeopath and she made an appointment for a phone consultation with her.

Now, as a rule, I oppose everything alternative and holistic therapy stands for. I'm a subscriber of The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcast, I totally stand behind what these guys are doing, if you're interested in scepticism and/or science check them out.

Not a lot of people understand what homeopathy is. I got the impression to start that it was basically eating vegetables and plant-based remedies, and I can understand plant-based remedies; modern medicine is based upon observations within the natural world, it's synthesised replications of plant and animal enzymes. I understand why people could potentially have a problem with synthetic drugs and want to use natural versions of them. But that's not what homeopathy is.

An overview: If you give a healthy person belladonna, they'll come up with symptoms similar to acute tonsilitis. When a person is suffering from acute tonsilitis, a homeopath will treat them with belladonna. Extremely dilute belladonna. In fact, some homeopathic remedies don't contain any of what it says on the bottle, they contain water with the "memory" of belladonna. This, apparently, will help the body heal itself and cure the underlying cause instead of (they claim) supressing the syptoms they way conventional medicine does.

It's actually been proven that echinacea doesn't work, but people still buy it. My mother still tries to give it to me whenever I have a cold. They proved scientifically that it doesn't work. Whenever I argue this with her, she blindly refuses to understand what that even means. They tested it, it makes no difference whether you take it or not. No mother, it doesn't work with you, you just think it does because you want to believe it.

So I was on the phone to the witch doctor homeopath (who, for starters, was trying to treat me for a medical condition over the phone) for about 45 minutes. She asked about the various symptoms, then she asked me to describe my personality to her. How would my friends describe me? What am I afraid of? What films do I like to watch?

I got off the phone to her. "It's a bit like a therapy session, isn't it?" beams my mother.

So I've been put on a hypoallergenic diet. This means no sugar, no dairy, no wheat, no yeast, no mushrooms, no red meat, no alcohol, no peanuts, no caffeine. You don't realise how difficult it is until you try. I can't eat toast. I can't eat a burger. I can't eat a sandwich. I can't eat pasta. I can't eat have a biscuit and a cup of coffee. I can't eat pizza. I can't have a gravy dinner. I can't eat coleslaw. For a month.

I can understand the probiotics (even though soya yoghurt is disgusting), I can almost understand the diet even if I can't forgive it. I've also got a couple of useless homeopathic pills to take (which are effectively worse than placebos because I'm not even expecting them to do anything).

But as I mentioned at the start, I've been ill for over a month now, and it's been adversely affecting my mood (the week I spent off college was a very dark week). So I'm getting desperate. Desperate enough to try these homeopathetic remedies. Cross your fingers for me.

Okay, normally I don't enjoy reposting memes, but this one isn't one of those generic Q&As and I can actually waffle on a bit, so I'll give it a bash. Jacked from cleolinda (who, by the way, I am a massive fangirl of).

So, I need to come up with 10 things that probably only I have done. Here... we... go.
( Wanna know how I got these scars? )


Another fun fact about me: I don't pronounce my own name correctly.


And in world news, J. K. Rowling won her case again the Lexicon! The world didn't end! (Well, not for another couple of weeks at least.) And I discovered free podcasts, and my disk space has been decreasing ever since...

So, I just found out that my Austrian e-pal, who I met on holiday and is in the army, is going to Georgia to help the people there. He told me that he hopes he'll come back.

Ugh, what a great end to a great day. I though that that awful iced caramel machiatto on the way home was the icing on the cake, but this is the multi-coloured super-sprinkles.


"This job would be great if it wasn't for the fucking customers." True say man, true say.


Oh, and I didn't see one interesting-looking person when I enrolled at college on Tuesday. I know I'm judging books by their covers but that's what I do; I have a library card which allows me to do so on a regular basis and I'm quite good at it. I kinda don't want to go back to school now.


I wish my icon was true.

I mean, do you have to look so fucking depressed all the time?



I think the Houses of Parliament should hold a fancy dress party. Now that would be awesome beyond words.

And the state of the nation isn't so bad. You just believe too much you read in the Sun, Mr Brown. If I was a Cabinet Minister, things would be so awesome. We'd be the happiest nation ever. I mean, in a country where the MPs skip and give their colleagues cake, what could ever go wrong?

Re: The Dark Knight. I've so far managed to get 2 days past the UK release date (a week and a half or so past the US one?) without picking up any major spoilers. I've heard so little about Two-Face it's unreal, to the point of not knowing if he's even in it. I mean, obviously Harvey Dent is in it. (If you dont want to know who Two-Face is, don't highlight.) I'm not complaining though, the less I hear about the plot the happier I am as far as I'm concerned.

But I'm going a little bit bat crazy. To the point where I have a Batman logo T-shirt, a Batgirl T-shirt, a pair of bat earrings, a pair of Batman knickers, 3 badges, a bag, 2 Joker posters, a Batman poster and a 3D Dark Knight poster. The Burton/Schumacher box set. And the Batman Begins/Gotham Knight box - the play.com exclusive with a USB with movie stills.

And also, the OMG BAT LIVING IN MY ROOF.

Well. It may not be a bat. It might be some sparrows, or a rat, or a demon waiting to posess me (see 'Come Closer' by Sara Gran). If it's a bat, we aren't even allowed to move it because it's endangered. How badass is that? A bat living in my room?

Finally, Austria was awesome. In a few words: sunburn, beer, singing, hot choir/army/photographer guys from other countries, awesome graffiti (who knew?!). Good times. Except for the stupid costume. And the choir that had a song that was 7 minutes of fart noises.

Ingredients

100g plain chocolate
100g plain flour*
100g butter**
250g caster sugar
2 eggs
Half a teaspoon of baking powder***
Pinch of salt
Optional: 100g chocolate chips

*If you have wholemeal flour just sieve it. Nobody will know.
**If you're cheap like me, use margerine. Again, nobody will know.
***If you have no baking powder, use a sprinkle of bicarbonate of soda. Or just leave it out, whatever.


Method

1. Preheat the oven to normal cooking temperature. For us that's between 180 and 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Melt the chocolate and the butter together. I do this the old fashioned way by putting the mixing bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water (making sure that the water doesn't touch the mixing bowl). If you're lazy, use the microwave.
3. Take the bowl off the heat (be careful and don't burn your kitchen-top!) (unless of course you used the microwave, then you just remove it from the microwave oven).
4. Add the sugar. Mix.
5. Add the flour. Mix. Don't be worried, it's supposed to be all sticky and gooey and really doughy like that.
6. Break the eggs. Add the eggs (minus shells). There you go, that's more like what you expected it to look like, right?
7. Add the salt and the baking powder.
8. Add the optional chocolate chips, if you really think there isn't enough sugar in there already.
9. Grease a tin/dish with a little extra butter. I actually use a glass dish which I'm not entirely sure is supposed to be used in an oven and is probably just supposed to be for serving food in, but it works.
10. Pour brownie misture into dish. Scrape.
    
11. Place in oven.
12. This should take roughly 30 minutes to cook, but this SERIOUSLY depends on your oven. Keep checking it. Use a knife or something to check it's cooked all the way through (hint: if when you withdraw the knife there's still liquid, it's not done. Always check in the centre of the mixture.)
13. If cracks form in the top, don't worry. That always happens to me. And it might rise a little bit. Don't worry about that either, it normally sinks back down when you open the oven door or when the brownies are cooling at the end. Only worry if the mixture spills out into your oven because then you'll have to clean it up, and that's unenviable. Also, if it looks really dark on top don't worry, it's not as burnt as you think. Unless it smells really quite burnt, then it is. But possibly still edible.
    
14. Take it out once it's cooked and OMG LET IT COOL DOWN. Please.
15. Cut up into squares.
16. Yummalicious. Your brownies are done!